Mini Strawberry Rhubarb Galettes with Whole Grain Rye Crust

by Heidi @ Food Doodles on July 2, 2013

I hope all my Canadian readers had a wonderful Canada Day. We spent some of ours picking strawberries. Aren’t they gorgeous?

I’m so in love with them and I’m planning on going back next weekend to hopefully get some more before the season is over. I’m sad to think of how fast it goes by. I want to enjoy these beauties all year long!

But moving on, I have some delicious galettes for you today. In case you don’t know, a galette is basically a rustic pie, baked without a pie plate. Trust me when I say they make a huge mess. Line your baking sheet! Or maybe that was just my incredibly juicy berries(and not so perfect crust). But better to be safe than sorry and line your sheet. Plus you don’t want those fabulous fruit juices fusing your galette to your baking sheet because that would be sad.

Along the same lines of these making a mess… Don’t worry that you messed them up. Because you’ll peek in on these in the oven at 10 minutes and 20 minutes into the baking time and worry about what you did wrong. They look ugly! To put it lightly. But they bake up into perfection, so relax 🙂

I made these yesterday when it was really hot and humid so my perfectly crisp and flaky pie crusts didn’t last long. But let me tell you, I use to be terrified of pie crusts. I had to mentally prepare myself to make pie crust because they made me so nervous, but not any longer. As long as you prepare all your ingredient ahead of time and have everything ready to go, you’ll be fine.

Before I had really made pie I remember my mother in law giving a little demo to her daughters(and us daughters in law) on making pie pastry. I can honestly say my pastry would still really suck if it weren’t for that simple 5 minute demo.

I wish I could give you all a little demo like that, but I don’t think I’m going to get into video blogging anytime soon, so instead, I just have a few little tips for you to make perfect pie pastry, with or without whole grains.

Have all your ingredients and tools cold. You probably already know your butter needs to be cold, but this includes your flour, water and even your bowl and pastry cutter(or the blades of your food processor!). Stick everything in your freezer until ready to make your pastry.

Work fast. I think this one goes without saying. And this rule is why I use a food processor since cutting in butter takes me forever. If you take forever cutting in the butter like I do, or if you take forever with your hands in the dough it will warm up. Touch it as little as possible and…

Don’t overmix. Pastry should only be “kneaded” to incorporate the flour and butter that hasn’t been mixed in yet. Kneading develops gluten. Gluten makes your pastry tough. Get your dough together and stop touching it.

Add as little water as possible for the dough to stick together. This goes along with not over mixing your dough you should just add enough water to get it to start sticking together, then squeeze the dough together to distribute the water so you don’t need to add more.

And lastly, practice makes perfect 🙂 Don’t expect perfection on your first try or even your 10th try. Just learn from your mistakes and more importantly, keep trying!

If you have some experience making pastry, what are your tips for getting it to turn out perfect?

Did I mention that it is killer hot here today? It’s incredibly hot, with the chance of a crazy storm later. I can’t say I’m not excited because I love thunderstorms but I’m still a little afraid of what that might mean for everyone with the flooding in Alberta still fresh in my mind, the strawberry farmers locally who lost a lot of their crop to the rains and forest fire season in my mind this time of year too.

Anyways, I’ll be back later in the week with some frozen treats to keep you cool!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare a rimmed baking sheet by lining with parchment or a non stick liner.

In one bowl stir together the ground almonds and ¼ C sugar. Set aside.

Roll out pastry. For these galettes I made 6 - 4" galettes so I divided the dough into 6" before chilling then rolled them to about 6" before filling. This recipe will make 3 - 7" galettes or 2 - 10" galettes, but baking time will need to be adjusted.

For these mini galettes, roll out pastry to 6" in diameter, as round as possible.

Spread a spoonful of the almond sugar mixture to each one, about an inch from the edge.

Top with chopped fresh fruit, mounding in the middle. Sprinkle with the remaining ¼ C sugar.

Gently fold up the edges, pushing the folds together(brushing with water to get them to stick if needed). Brush the crusts with melted butter and sprinkle with a coarse, raw sugar. Place in the lower ⅓ of the oven and bake for 35-40 minutes until golden brown and the juices are bubbling, rotating the baking sheet as needed. Remove from the oven and let cool on the sheets for 5-10 minutes. Run a butter knife along the edge of the crust to remove any fruit juices that have dripped out before they cool. Very carefully lift the galettes onto a wire rack to cool for 15-20 minutes or longer before serving.

Notes

Sucanat, palm sugar or even brown sugar are fine but I prefer a coarse, raw sugar for these rustic pies 🙂

Prepare all your ingredients. Stir together the flours, sugar and salt and place in the freezer. Measure out a little more than ⅓ C cold water and place in the freezer while prepping the rest of your ingredients. Alternatively add ice to make the water super cold instead of leaving it in the freezer. You can also add your bowl and other equipment to the freezer to chill them as you want to keep the pastry as cold as possible.

When ready to make your pastry add the dry ingredients to your food processor and add the butter. Pulse until the butter is chopped into small pieces, about the size of small peas. Pour out the flour mixture into your original bowl. Drizzle in a little less than ⅓ C water and stir with a fork, adding more water only as needed. Use your hands to squeeze the dough together and knead/squeeze the dough just 4-5 times to help it to stick together. Divide into as many crusts as you want to make, wrap in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes before rolling or the freezer up to 3 months.

Notes

Remember, have all your ingredients and tools cold, work fast, don't over mix and above all, practice makes perfect!

G’day! Hope all Canadians enjoyed Canada Day, true!
Your recipe and photo looks SO yum! I JUST finished lunch, but reckon I have some room to come through the screen and taste this now too! lol
Cheers! JoanneJoanne T Ferguson recently posted..In My Kitchen, July 2013

I’ve been making pastry (i.e. pie crusts) for a very long time. The one tip my mother taught me was to add as little water as possible, because too much water also makes for tough pastry. Shortening, on the other hand, makes it flaky. I’ve always known to have my butter and water ice cold, but had never before heard of keeping all the ingredients and tools cold. I’m sure that will help to get the pastry to turn out well.

The rye pastry with strawberries sounds like an intriguing combination.

Oh yes! I should really add a note about adding as little water as possible, that is so important too! I know shortening makes pastry flaky, but I love the flavor of butter so much more(and don’t like using shortening at all for anything!). And with practice I’ve found that I can get nice flaky pastry with butter as well 🙂

Wow, those strawberries look awesome. I though rhubarb season was over. I have never made anything with rhubarb before. I have had several things to do on my baking list with it but I have not gotten around to it 🙁 By the way email me bc you were one of the people that won the eBooks 🙂Eat Good 4 Life recently posted..Melon, prosciutto and cheese salad

I love galettes! Your tips are great, I follow the same one pretty much to a T! I think the a lot of people “over think” making pie dough/pastry and tend to “touch it / over handle ” it- 9 times out of 10 it will come together, like you say- just move fast!Heather recently posted..chickpea, baby beet greens, radish salad with scape hemp seed pesto

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Welcome to Food Doodles!

Hi, I'm Heidi! I'm a mom of 3 kids ages 8 and under feeding my family real food. Heavy on the fruits and veggies but also full of healthy whole grain baked goodies, these are my experiments with good food, my Food Doodles.
Read more on my About page.